Secondary Victimization Policies & Practices

EUROPEAN CRIME PREVENTION NETWORK EUCPN Toolbox Series No. 7 Preventing Secondary Victimization policies & practices In the framework of the project ‘‘The development of the observatory function of the European Centre of Expertise on Crime Prevention within the EUCPN’. EUCPN Secretariat, March 2016, Brussels With financial support from the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union European Commission – Directorate-General Home Affairs Preventing Secondary Victimization Policies & practices Preface The seventh toolbox in the series published by the EUCPN Secretariat focuses on the topic chosen by the Latvian presidency, namely Secondary Victimization. In recent years the Latvian police has taking huge steps in making the police officers aware of the phenomena and providing them with a guideline in how to prevent Secondary Victimization. They wanted to share the knowledge of this experience with the other Member States of the network and see if there were other good practices that they could use. The toolbox is divided into three parts: policy and legislation, a guideline of good and promising practices and examples from practices. All 3 parts of the toolbox are important however the most emphasis is put on the second part. Within this part of the toolbox, the focus is on the different steps of the justice system a victim has to go through. The EUCPN Secretariat made a ‘matrix’ which shows the different steps of the justice system. For each step in the judicial system, we have tried to formulate the most pressing needs of the victims, the EU minimal standards provided through the legislations discussed in part 1 and we have also formulated good practices gathered in the Member States. The purpose of this ‘matrix’ was to be able to give a clear and easily accessible overview of what the victims are going through and to provide local and national practitioners and policymakers with a basic guideline in order to start preventing Secondary Victimization. The idea was, and is, to explain to local practitioners the viewpoint and experiences of the victims of crime in the different steps of the criminal justice system and to explain what can be done to ameliorate their experiences. It needs to be stated that the EUCPN Secretariat is no expert in the field of criminal proceedings, however the idea was not to explain every aspect in depth; we rather want to contribute to the rights of the victims of crimes and make local practitioners aware of them. Legal notice The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of any EU Member State or any agency or institution of the European Union or European Communities. Authors/editors Febe Liagre, Policy and Practice Officer, EUCPN Secretariat Cindy Verleysen, Research Officer EUCPN Secretariat EUCPN Secretariat Waterloolaan / Bd. de Waterloo 76 1000 Brussels, Belgium Phone: +32 2 557 33 30 Fax: +32 2 557 35 23 [email protected] – www.eucpn.org 2 Acknowledgements This toolbox has been developed in a close collaboration between the EUCPN Secretariat and the team of the Latvian Presidency, who did a fantastic job in providing us with input and experts for the development of this toolbox. Therefore we are very grateful towards Ms. Ilze Berzina-Rukere, Mr. Andis Rinkevics and the whole Latvian team for their support and feedback. Furthermore, we would like to thank all EUCPN National Representatives, Substitutes and Academic Contact Points for their continuous support of our work. We would especially like to thank the National Representatives and Substitutes of the 21 Member States who sent us answers to the questionnaire about Secondary Victimization. These answers form one of the main inputs into this toolbox. Without it, we would have not been able to write it. Finally, we are very grateful towards all the participants of the workshops we organized in relation to this toolbox: Mr. Andis Rinkevics (State Latvian Police expert of secondary victimization), Ms. Dace Kavasa (…), Ms. Irina Frolova (Social worker for the Latvian NGO Marta), Ms. Maria McDonald (Ireland), Ms. Monique Anderson (PhD student researching restorative justice practices, University of Leuven), Ms. Kristel Buntinx (…, restorative justice service), Mr. João Lázaro (president of Victim Support Europe and APAV) and Ms. Els Enhus (dr. in criminology, Free university of Brussels). The EUCPN Secretariat 3 Table of contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................5 Toolbox elements ...........................................................................................................5 PART 1: Secondary Victimization – policies & legislation �� 7 Introduction �� 8 What is Secondary Victimization? �� 8 Definition of a victim �� 8 Secondary Victimization definition �� 9 Development of policy and legislative measures in the EU ................................................................ 10 Policy measures in the EU Member States ......................................................................................... 15 The questionnaire .......................................................................................................................... 15 Procedures to interact with victims ............................................................................................... 16 Training of the police in how to interact with victims .................................................................... 18 Focus on vulnerable groups .......................................................................................................... 20 Informing the victims �� 24 Conclusion �� 28 PART 2: Good and promising practices: a guideline of victim right throughout the justice system �� 29 Introduction �� 30 Prevention of Secondary Victimization �� 30 The ‘matrix’ �� 31 Continuous aspects �� 32 Different steps in the criminal justice system �� 37 Conclusion and recommendations �� 54 PART 3: Examples from practices ...................................................................................................... 56 Cutting Secondary victimization in the State Police in Latvia (LV) �� 57 ‘Special hearing rooms for children’ (CZ) �� 59 European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) �� 61 JAD – Joint Action Against Domestic Violence (RO) �� 62 Protection order (RO) �� 63 Milan Imppulse project: Effective communication, a bridge towards citizens (IT) �� 65 Handbook guiding doctors and pediatricians in relation to the management of cases involving the abuse (or suspected abuse) of young girls and boys (IT67) �� 67 IMPPULSE project – “Improving Police/Population Understanding for Local Security” (Efus) �� 68 Bibliography �� 70 4 Introduction Secondary Victimization, which means the victimization of victims by government officials after a crime has occurred, is not an overly known phenomenon. However, it is important to focus on this phenomenon, because the nature of a criminal act leaves a victim vulnerable and in need of assistance. Victims are, often for the very first time, involved in the criminal justice system and may have to speak to police officers, lawyers and judges and ultimately go to court. This process can be confusing and overwhelming and when these parties, who are there to protect, inform and help them, victimize the victims further by their behaviour and reactions, it can further traumatize the victims and let them lose faith in the system. Because of this factor of unknown, the toolbox is primary written for local policy-makers and practitioners since they will be confronted with victims in their daily work. Therefore we hope that this toolbox with its guideline and good

Load more